Prosecutors say Ferrante tested toxin on mice to gauge effect on human

Oct. 22--Paperwork that lawyers for a University of Pittsburgh researcher filed Wednesday suggests prosecutors may try to present evidence to a jury that he once tested a toxin on a lab mouse so he could gauge its effect on a human.

But the lawyers for Robert Ferrante, 66, argue that the admission of the evidence "would create a trial within a trial" ... on a "purely speculative issue."

Ferrante is accused of poisoning his wife, UPMC neurologist Dr. Autumn Marie Klein, on April 17, 2013. She died at UPMC Presbyterian three days later.

Prosecutors, the defense says, notified Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning that they may introduce evidence at the trial beginning Thursday afternoon that Ferrante tested a toxin called 3-NP on a lab mouse to determine its possible effects on a human. Prosecutors filed the notification under seal last month.

In their response Wednesday, Ferrante's defense attorneys William Difenderfer and Wendy Williams say prosecutors plan to call Molly Ann Lauver, a lab technician at Pitt, to testify that Ferrante directed her to bring him a mouse so he could test the potency of the toxin on it.

According to the filing, Lauver will testify that she brought Ferrante a mouse and was later summoned to retrieve its dead body.

Ferrante's lawyers say there was never a timeframe attached to the incident, and proof that it occurred does not further the prosecution's attempt to show that he killed Klein with cyanide.

Pennsylvania law allows prosecutors to use "prior bad acts" to prove motive, among other things.

Ferrante, his lawyers say, "had long been using 3-NP in his research," and "would hardly be guilty of the scientifically erroneous thinking that toxicity of a compound on a mouse would provide immediately relevant information about lethality and effects on a human."

Ferrante's lawyers contend that even if Lauver's testimony is true, "it does not constitute a crime or a wrongful act."

Ferrante, a former member of Pitt Medical School'sRodent Advisory Committee, spent the majority of his career testing on animals -- primarily mice, they said.

Criminal poisoning expert John Testrail said a cursory check of 3-NP shows that it induces brain damage accompanied by a disturbance in the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain. It's used to study mechanisms of Huntington's Disease, he said.

Lawyers on Thursday must pick two alternate jurors for the trial because two alternates selected Wednesday told the court they are unable to serve.

Lawyers selected three women and one man in under an hour Wednesday to join the panel of 12 jurors -- eight women and four men -- selected Tuesday. It was not clear which alternate jurors will be replaced.

Pellegrini and fellow prosecutor Kevin Chernosky plan to call about 60 witnesses over three weeks, laying out evidence police obtained through more than 80 search warrants in Ferrante's laboratories at Pitt and the VA Medical Center in Oakland, and at the couple's home.

Ferrante has denied any involvement in his wife's death. His lawyers, William Difenderfer and Wendy Williams, are expected to base their defense on several medical experts who will dispute lab tests and Klein's cause of death.

The jurors selected Tuesday are:

Juror 1 -- A Wexford woman who works as a receptionist.

Juror 2 -- Whitehall woman who is unemployed.

Juror 3 -- Brighton Heights woman who is a legislative assistant for a state representative.

Juror 4 -- Retired East Liberty woman who was an administrator for UPMC for 42 years.

Juror 5 -- A Moon man who is a computer consultant.

Juror 6 -- A Green Tree man who is a terminal operator for an energy company

Juror 7 -- A Ross man who manages a North Hills convenience store.

Juror 8 -- A man who works for a safety products company in Cranberry.

Juror 9 -- A retired man who worked for Heinz for 46 years.

Juror 10 -- An O'Hara man who is a groundskeeper of a school and church.

Juror 11 -- A Monroeville man who works at a power plant in Homer City.

Juror 12 -- A Ross man who is a beverage manager at a golf course.

The alternates are a woman from Mt. Lebanon who works as a dental assistant; an East McKeesport woman who works as a security guard at a middle school; a Moon man who works as an office manager in Crescent; and an Uptown woman who works as a costumer for movies filmed locally.

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